Dark Fudgy Brownies

Re-starting my blog from the USA after a long break. I moved here about 4 plus months ago. New place, cold weather, moving to an apartment and unpacking and long summer holidays with grandparents left me with no time for cooking for the blog....rather clicking for the blog. Today, I made the all time popular American dessert. I still have to buy a cake whisk for baking, but this recipe is quite simple with all the ingredients to be mixed in one after the other to create the famous kid approved dessert.

Ingredients:

• 150 grams dark chocolate ( with 70 percent or more cacao)
  
• 1/2 cup (or 1 stick/113 gms butter) -- I used "salted". "Unsalted" is preferable.
• 1/4 cup (20 grams) cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup (100 grams) all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup (70 grams) sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used "white". Dark chocolate chips can be used)
• 1/4 tsp salt (I didn't add -- as I used salted butter)
• 1/4 cup water

Recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease the baking dish with oil or butter. I used a brownie pan. I greased the individual slots with oil.
• Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl on a double boiler. (Take a pan. Boil water. Put the glass bowl on top of the water. The glass bowl should be bigger than the vessel in which the water is boiling. Add the chocolate and butter in the bowl and melt it with the heat of the steam from the boiling water. The bottom of the glass bowl shouldn't touch the water)

• Once the butter and the chocolate is melted, mix it well with a spatula and keep it aside to cool.

• Add cocoa powder to the flour and sift the mix of dry ingredients and keep it aside.

• Add sugar to the cooled butter /chocolate and mix it well with a spoon or a spatula.

• Add eggs one at a time and mix.

• Add the vanilla extract.

• Lastly add the flour/cocoa and mix. At this point, I found the mixture to be very thick, I added about 1/4 cup of water. Mix till everything is smooth and to the dropping consistency.

• Pour the mix in the greased baking tray. If using the brownie pan, add about 1/4 cup of the mix in each slot. Top with dark or white chocolate chips.

• Bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade (350 degrees F)
• Turn off the oven and leave the tray/pan in the oven for about 5 minutes.
• Let the brownies cool in the tray for another 10 minutes.

• Then cut them to squares or take them out in a plate to serve.

Quantity:

• Makes about 9 pieces (2 inch squares about an inch thick)

• Serve them warm or room temperature or with icecream.

Notes:

• The sugar is very less in this recipe. You can increase the sugar to 1/2 or even 1 cup.
• I preferred slightly bitter taste with bits of sweetness from the white choco-chips.
• Use good quality dark chocolate, with no or very less sugar.
• You can also use nuts(walnut, pistachio, almonds) instead or with chocolate chips.

Focaccia caprese / Rosemary and onion focaccia

Focaccia is the bread, I always wanted to make since I started baking. It is said to be a very easy one, and one of the very first bread, you should try when you start learning bread baking. I am learning to bake a bread a month, since I joined +Aparna Balasubramanian 's bread baking group and this is the bread we are baking in January 2014. Focaccia is kind of a flat bread which originated in Greece, though it is made in different ways in different parts of Italy. There is even a sweet version.

Focaccia Caprese

Rosemary and Onion focaccia

It looks similar to a pizza, some of the differences are that focaccia is usually has a thicker and more spongier crust and pizza has a thinner and crispier one. Focaccia is usually topped with herbs, oil and garlic and pizza has different toppings. Focaccia is served warm or at room temperature and pizza is generally served hot, right off the oven... well, that's the trivia and more about it here.....:)

I made Focaccia Caprese, a version of focaccia made in the Capri region of Italy. The toppings used for this version of focaccia are tomatoes, fresh basil and buffalo mozzarella cheese. I also had some fresh rosemary leaves, so I made another one with the topping of herbed oil, rosemary and onions. Both, versions of bread were very tasty and were gobbled down by all of us in matter of minutes. I served it with "Couscous and chickpea salad" and it was a wonderful meal. Recipe adapted from "The kitchen whisperer" 

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 1 and 1/2 tbsp of sugar
• 3 and 1/2 cups of bread flour(I used regular all purpose flour)
  
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 to 1 and 1/2 cup warm water
• A little more olive oil to knead and brush on the dough (1-3 tsps)

For the herbed oil:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp of mixed dried italian herbs like dried basil, oregano, etc
• 3-4 garlic cloves grated
• 1 tsp red chili flakes
• 1/2 tsp salt

For the topping:

• 2 tomatoes cut in thin slices
• buffalo mozzarella cheese cut to disks(I used the regular mozzarella)
• fresh basil leaves to garnish
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 1 onion cut to discs, or chopped to thin long slices and separated.

Recipe:

• Grate the garlic and whisk all the ingredients for herbed oil together and keep it aside.

• You can make the dough with hand or by machine.
• Take the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and oil in a food processor or a large bowl.

• Mix them well, with hands or a whizz in the machine for about 30-40 seconds.
• Add water and continue mixing, till it comes together as a non sticky dough.
• Take it out in a well oiled bowl and knead with hands for about 2-3 minutes till it comes together as a smooth ball of dough. 

• Keep it aside, covered with a plastic wrap or kitchen towel till it doubles up in volume. It will take about an hour or hour and half.

• I used a rectangular pan 22 cm by 18 cm and a square pan with 20 cm sides.
• Divide the dough according to the size of the pan u use. I divided the dough in 3 parts.

• Oil the pan and stretch the dough by patting it. Top with a tsp of olive oil and keep it to rise for another 20-30 minutes.

• Make some dents/dimples on the surface of the dough with your finger and pour about 2-3 tsp of herbed oil on top of the dough.

• Bake it for 18-20 minutes in a preheated oven at 210 degrees centigrade.

• Take the focaccia out when the top is golden.

• Get the ingredients ready for topping. Slice tomatoes and cheese to thin slices. Wash and clean the basil and rosemary. Chop the onions.

• Layer mozzarella slices, tomatoes, rosemary and onions and top with more herbed oil. 

• Increase the oven temperature to 230 degrees and bake for another 5 minutes till the mozzarella is melted and the top is golden brown.

• Serve cut into slices or squares warm or at room temperature.

Quantity:

• about 3 focaccia breads... 2 of 22cm*18cm and 1 square pan size of 20 cm.
• serves 4 people along with a side comfortably.

Notes:

• You can make 4 small individual serving breads. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions are roll them(press them) to 5 by 7 inch ovals.
• Cut them out in squares or slices for easy "pick me up" snack.

Low fat cranberry muffins

Since I bought the perfect fitting cupcake liners for my cupcake tray, the cupcakes seem to bake well. My kids have their friends over, so they like having these mini treats with their evening milk, after afternoon of play and games...!!! A snack, which looks like a cupcake, yet it is kinda healthy(compared to any store bought stuff, I could give them), and which is very easy to make and bake without any lengthy procedure or fancy baking equipment.... :) Sounds good, doesn't it ...?? It tastes good too, with burst of fresh flavors.... !! Google searched and found this yummy recipe, here. It's detailed and I chose to do the original version, with few changes.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all purpose flour (OR whole wheat flour... check notes)
  
• 3/4 cup quick cooking oats (OR use rolled oats)
• 1/3 OR 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder (As I used self-raising flour, I omitted this ingredient)
• 1/2 cup of dried cranberries (OR use dried cherries, apricots, raisins)
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips(OR use roasted walnuts)
• 1 egg (or 2 egg whites.....OR 2 tbsp yogurt to make the eggless version)
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3 tbsp oil (any flavorless oil, I used canola)
• 1 tsp grated orange zest
• more oats, chocolate chips, cranberries to sprinkle on top

Recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees for about 10 mins.
• Line the cupcake tray with paper liners.

• Zest the orange.

• Powder the oats, to flour in a grinder.

• Sift flours, salt, baking powder in a large bowl. 
• I pureed the cranberries. You can use them whole.

• Add sugar and dried cranberries. Mix with a spatula.

• Add chocolate chips or walnuts. Mix again. 

• Make a well in the center of dry mix and keep aside. 

• In a measuring cup, measure milk.
• Add oil and egg(or yogurt) to it.

• Add orange zest and mix with a fork or a whisk.

• Add this liquid mixture, to the dry ingredients.

• Mix with a spatula to get a smooth batter. 

• Add additional 1-2 tsp milk, if you think the batter is too thick.

• Add about 2 tbsp of batter in the cupcake molds.

• Top it with 1/2 tsp of oats, cranberries or chocolate chips.

• Bake for 20-25 minutes till the tops are browned and a toothpick comes out clean. 

• Cool them completely, before serving. 

Quantity:

• Makes 12 medium size muffins.

Notes:

• You can use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose one. But, the muffins will be denser and different taste.(acquired taste)
• You can use rolled oats(or maybe steel cut oats -- I have never used steel cut oats) to make oat flour.
• You can use low fat milk and just 2 egg whites instead of a whole egg.
• You can use 2 tbsp of yogurt(Instead of egg), to make the recipe EGGLESS.
• The taste will differ and the muffins will be denser...if u use healthier ingredients.... :) 
• As I pureed the cranberries, sugar can be reduced to maybe 1/3 cup....if you like the muffins to be on less sweet side...!